This invention generally relates to field of assessment, and more particularly, to a method and system that facilitate the creation and maintenance of assessments.
There are many situations that require one party to use some method of assessment to gather information on another party. In this context, assessments are means and methods used to evaluate, test, measure and/or other means used by one party to gain insight into another party""s understanding, knowledge, comprehension, progress, skill development, memory and other criteria.
The most common example of this is when a teacher must assess the knowledge that has been absorbed by students. In addition to an academic environment, there are many other situations in which assessment may be used. Some examples may include: a company training its workers on how to use a new technology product; a market research firm asking respondents to a survey to evaluate a new packaging design; or an insurance company determining whether a potential policy holder has read and understands the policy for which they are seeking coverage. These are just a few of many ways in which information assessment may be used.
Until the advent of computer technology, most assessment was limited to using either verbal or handwritten means to gather the information provided by the assessment. For example, in the classroom setting the teacher might ask questions and seek verbal responses or the teacher may use a print format by administering tests or quizzes. However, with improvements in computer technology and, in particular, the advent of computer networks such as the Internet and corporate Intranets, assessments can now be carried out in electronic form. For example, students can take a course over the Internet without the need to be in the classroom and can take tests, quizzes and other assessments by using a computer to access courseware; or a consumer can be recruited by an advertising agency to view and evaluate advertisements that are sent to their interactive television; or a trade show operator can send questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of the show, which are accessible by exhibitors or show attendees via their wireless devices.
The process for creating assessments that are electronically delivered has generally followed a method that consists of the following steps. The person creating the assessment reviews material (e.g., reading material, presentation material, web sites, etc.) for which an assessment is required. During or after the review the person creating the assessment determines what form (e.g., multiple choice questions, essay, attitude/opinion measurement, etc.) the assessment will take. The person creating the assessment then creates the assessment using an electronic creation tool (e.g., educational courseware, HTML form, word processing document, etc). Once created the person creating the assessment reviews and alters the assessment as needed. The assessment is then made available electronically (e.g., transferring file, submitting through courseware, electronically mailing, etc.). Finally the person being assessed accesses and completes the assessment.
An inherent drawback for users who create and maintain assessments for electronic delivery rests in the fact that current methods require the user to alternate between the source(s) of information from which the assessment will be drawn and the electronic tools used to develop the assessment. That is, the information content from which the assessment will be drawn and the assessment development tools are not within a continuous unified perceptual experience.
A continuous unified perceptual experience exists when one or more sensory inputs or stimuli are present, either concurrently or in relevant sequential order, so that the user""s overall sensory experience or awareness registers as a single or series of associated and undisturbed events. For the purpose of this invention such an experience takes place within the experience obtained when interacting, either passively or actively, with certain electronic or communications devices. The main principle behind the continuous unified perceptual experience is that the person who is registering the experience when interacting with the electronic and/or communications device is perceiving that the stimuli they are experiencing are linked or unified in a logical or rational manner such as being associated with a specific item or application and/or emanating from a single source. A disruption to the link that establishes the perceived connection of stimuli results in a disruption to the person""s perceptual experience. A distinction is not made based on length of time of exposure to the stimuli but on common characteristics that link the stimuli and that these links are relevant within the context of the person""s current expectations of the perceptual experience.
For the purpose of this invention, examples may include: information provided through a single computer application such as a single web browser; programming provided through a single analog or digital wireline broadcast source such as cable sources and programming provided through a single analog or digital wireless broadcast source such over-the-air television and radio, satellite, and other wireless applications. In each of these examples someone whose current perceptual experience is focused on the information (i.e., stimuli) provided by these sources recognizes that these are linked as long as the delivery of the stimuli remains undisturbed within the user""s expectations of the perceptual experience.
For example, when watching television the viewer may become absorbed with programming offered by a broadcast channel, which contains many sensory stimuli most notably text, video and audio, which the viewer realizes are integrated to produce the programming content. For the viewer the combination of different sensory stimuli offered by the broadcaster produces a unified event. However, if the broadcast channel is changed, then a viewer""s perceptual experience has been altered and the viewer""s awareness has to some degree shifted away from the programming offered by the previously viewed broadcast channel.
Likewise, when working with programs or applications through a computer interface device, a user""s experience is often interrupted by the need to switch between programs or applications in order to complete a task. The switching presents the user with new sensor stimuli either fully or partially in place of the perceptual experience they were sensing before the switching occurred. For example, a user may need to switch from one program or application to another, which may create a situation whereby the program or application the user was working with is now overlaid, either fully or partially, with another program or application. These interruptions in one""s perceptual experience may present problems to the user of the interface device as they make certain adjustments to handle the shift in their awareness.
A drawback of existing methods for creating and maintaining assessments is that these require the user to work with information content and the assessment creation tools that represent separate sensory experiences. The user is required, in nearly all situations, to make physical and/or mental adjustments or manipulations that at one point in time brings the information content within their sensory experience and another adjustment or manipulation to bring the assessment creation tools into their sensory experience. The act of bringing one of these items into the user""s perceptual experience requires that the other item depart the user""s perceptual experience either in part or in full.
For example, a teacher may instruct students to visit a number of web sites as part of a class assignment. The teacher would like to create a means to assess the level of knowledge or experience (or measure some other attribute) gained by the student after visiting the sites. To do so the teacher uses online courseware, which contains an assessment module in which the teacher can create response items that assess the students"" knowledge/experience of the assigned web sites. To create this assessment the teacher must first visit the web site. Once the site has been visited, the teacher can begin to develop the response items to be included in the assessment. To create response items related to the material found on the web sites, the teacher has the ability to draw from several sources. One source is to tap into his/her memory of what he/she experienced when visiting the web sites. A second source is to look at a printed form of the web site, which the teacher may have produced when she/he visited the site. A third source is for the teacher to retain the web site for viewing on a computer screen (e.g., in a browser).
Yet each of the sources from which the teacher can refer holds certain disadvantages to the user when creating the assessment. A disadvantage of relying on memory, is that the teacher does not have the actual information content in their view and must rely solely on her or his memory of the material on the web site in order to create the response items. A failure to remember may require the teacher to go back to the material by revisiting the web site. This may result in extra time being spent in creating the assessment. Additionally, if the user""s memory is in error the user may enter the wrong information on the assessment that could lead to problems at some time during or after the assessment is to be completed by the students.
Disadvantages also exist when the teacher is referring to the printed representation of the web site. For instance, the teacher faces the inconvenience of moving his or her eyes away from the assessment creation tools in order to refer back to the printed document. This process has several drawbacks. First, it may potentially increase the time it takes to develop the assessment since the user must move their eyes away from the electronic assessment development tool in order to focus on the printed material. Second, this method may increase the risk of errors in terms of data entry within the electronic assessment creation tools especially if the user must remove their hands from the interface device in order to handle or manipulate the printed material. Third, this method is clearly expensive in terms of paper and materials since the teacher must printout the web site. Fourth, if the teacher produced the printout some time in the past, it is a possibility that the contents of the actual web site may have changed between the time it was printed out and the time the teacher referred to it in order to develop the assessment. This may result in the assessment being unsuitable or inaccurate compared to the information that now appears on the web site.
Disadvantage also exists with the option of switching between the web browser that contains the web site that serves as the information content and computer application containing the assessment creation tools. First, the act of switching between the two items may mean that one item is lost from view either fully or partially. This can increase the time it takes to develop the assessment since the user may need to continually switch between the two items. Second, while it is conceivable that the user could manipulate both items so as to make them appear in a way so one item does not overlap or block the other, the act of doing so is time consuming, inconvenient and, for many users, technically challenging. Additionally, this does not qualify as a unified perceptual experience since the items reside in separate applications rather than within a single application.
While a number of previous inventions have dealt with other issues related to one or more aspects of assessments such as delivery using electronic methods (U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,148), group methods for creating assessment (U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,890), scoring or grading (U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,601) or authoring within courseware (U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,060), prior art is lacking in addressing the issues raised in this invention.
The object of the present invention then is to create a method and system utilizing electronic and/or communications channels that allows users to create and maintain assessments, while in the presence of certain information content, in a way that provides a continuous unified perceptual experience.
Other objects and features of the invention and the manner in which the invention achieves its purpose will be appreciated from the foregoing and the following description and the accompanying drawings, which exemplify the invention.
The present invention provides a method and system that allows a user to create and maintain assessments. The assessments are primarily developed by one party for the purpose of assessing another party, such as a teacher preparing an assessment for a student. However, the present invention can be used in other situations where the purpose is for one party to gain insight into another party""s understanding, knowledge, comprehension, progress, skill development, memory and other criteria.
In the preferred embodiment a user will gain access, through an interface device, to an assessment control system that includes tools for creating and maintaining assessments. An aspect of this invention is that a user must identify information related to information content, which most likely represents, either directly or indirectly, the material or subject for which an assessment is being created. This information includes identifying the electronic and/or communications channel(s) location(s) of the information content. Once information content is identified the user can develop the assessment.
In this invention, the user develops assessments within an interface device operated by the user. In the preferred embodiment the assessment control system manages delivery to the user""s interface device of multiple components. For identifying information content, the system manages the concurrent delivery of a component containing tools to allow the user to identify information content and a component containing the information content. For creating the actual assessment the system manages the concurrent delivery of a component containing tools to allow the user to develop the assessment and a component containing the information content.
The manner in which the system manages the delivery of multiple components to the user""s interface device is in a form that produces a continuous unified perceptual experience. A continuous unified perceptual experience exists when one or more sensory inputs or stimuli are present, either concurrently or in a sequential order, so that the user""s overall experience or awareness registers as a single or series of associated and undisturbed events.
An additional feature of this invention is to allow for maintenance of previously created assessments, which includes additions, deletions, and other adjustments. Maintenance can occur on the actual assessment and on information related to the information content. Another feature of this invention is that new assessments can be created using information used in previous assessments. An additional feature of this invention is that the user""s interface device is connected to an electronic and/or communications channel(s).